16/06/2024
Wow, it’s been an interesting season. The condition of some chimneys even surprised us. One customer had a wood heater which was only installed 3 years ago. I immediately noticed the smoke stain on the ceiling near the flue and he confirmed it had been there since the start. It had an elbow in the flue to get past a beam. The plumber however had not fastened together any of the elbows or active flue. In fact, they weren’t even connected resulting smoke and debris going straight back into the house. As2918 dictates that each active flue must be fastened together with 3 stainless steel fasteners and a decent plumber will use pop rivets and not screws. Again there were a number of chimneys that we could not clean as the screws would not allow our brushes to pass.
We had a rental where tenants were moving in that day. The heater looked great, but the flue looked like something out of a road runner cartoon. It had been assembled with mismatched parts of different chimneys and not connected. See pic above.
Another chimney we inspected was just a shell on the roof. It was missing half the flue.
Please get your chimney checked even if you usually clean it yourself. Contact your landlord or realestate if you are renting and demand an inspection. Why are the rocks tied to that cowl in that pic? It held the cowl on top of the chimney as the rest of the cowl had rusted away 😀. Yes, they walk amongst us.
Call me on 0413310423 or inbox me for an appointment or quote. Don’t wait until smoke come in the house or worse. Due to travel costs and weather we cannot usually cater for emergency call outs.
